A Day Of Fun, Frolics And Literature.

Kelley and Will are both teachers and so they made the most of the summer holidays by holding their big day in July at Lemore Manor in Herefordshire.

This W-day is unbelievably stylish folks. From Kelley’s Stewart Parvin gown to the bridesmaids navy hat (oh I do love a best girl in a hat!) right the way through to the delicate florals.

However, it wasn’t the aesthetics of the occasion that were as important to the bride and groom as what a great time they and all their nearest and dearest were going to have, from when they woke up on I-do morning up until way past bedtime.

Just Like Me

I treated myself to some nice new products and practised my makeup before the big day and decided I wanted to do my own make up on the day. My friend curled my hair for me. I wanted it very simple but most importantly I wanted to feel like myself.

I never really style my hair so I went with a style that felt natural to me. My lovely friend Jenny helped me get ready on the day, it was such a special time and I wanted to share this time with my closest friend, we supped champagne and took our time!

Love Is All That Matters

My dress was ‘Love is all that matters’ by Stewart Parvin. I ordered the dress from Aphrodite bridal wear in Knutsford, Cheshire. I knew it was the dress because when I put it on it made me smile…All I wanted to do was twirl!

My mum and sister ‘knew’ too. I felt that I could move freely around in it and dance – which was very important to me! The fabric was so light and easy to wear.

Vintage Accessories

I also chose a lace vintage jacket from Aphrodite bridal wear and my mums pearl necklace. This is really old and beautiful and I always admired it growing up and new I had to wear it on my big day!

A Class Act

My Shoes were by Filippa Scott and called ‘Lola’. These were so comfortable, I tried these shoes on once and tried no more, they were classy and comfortable – what more would you want?!

Thoughtful Blooms

The company we used for flowers is called ‘Thoughtful Flowers’ based in Shropshire. They arranged my bouquet and buttonholes. They were a mix of wildflowers, grasses, purple sage, delphiniums.

They also delivered freshly picked flowers from their local field on the morning of the wedding, which I then arranged for the table centrepieces and in different sized vases around the marquee and house. I also gave my mother-in-law and her husband a list of flowers that Juliet was planning to use on the day.

I gave them this list 6 months before the wedding and they grew some beautiful flowers arranged in vintage apple crates which we put in front of the bandstand where we were married.

Chic And Navy

My Bridesmaid’s ivory dress was from Monsoon bride, the navy hat was from a charity shop and the navy shoes were from M & S

Hot On The High Street

Will’s suit & shirt were from Reiss and his tie was Aubin and Wills. The Best men’s suits, shirts and shoes were from Topman.

A True Record

Our photographer is the first thing we got in place after the venue was decided. We knew we wanted mainly natural photos, that were not staged – a true record of the day.

We saw Annamarie’s website and knew we had to have her! So we arranged for her to come over all the way from Surrey!

Garden Games

We were conscious that we wanted people to be busy throughout the afternoon and we wanted people to mingle and have fun, we bought lots of games from Total Gardens-. We had games out on the lawn from limbo, space hoppers, jenga, boules, quoits to croquet. The lads had a big cricket game after the wedding breakfast (there was also a Dawson v Higham football match on Friday night!).

We had a blackboard (well, we are teachers!) propped up against a tree where people could read beforehand what the timings of the day and activities. This helped to keep everyone on track and stopped people asking ‘when is the meal, dancing’ etc! We had a disco later but did our own playlist on an ipod – being able to choose our own songs was great…the dancefloor was full all night.

A Love Of Literature

We wanted the whole wedding to reflect our personalities: my love of vintage décor was important, as was Will’s love of literature. For the centre of the table, I collected old books to use as stands for the flower decorations (in tea cups). I also collected strings of pearls from charity shops which were draped over the books. I collected vintage tea cups and saucers to use as centre pieces to place flowers.

Lesley from Vintage Hire (based in Gloucestershire) provided candlesticks, crockery and cutlery. Ikea do a great small cheap double sided photo frames that held my table names. Keeping with the Shakespeare theme – we had the name of 11 Shakespeare plays on one side and on the other side a fitting love quote from the play!

Best Of British

I knew I wanted something fun, easy and a traditional British desert, so we opted for a Victoria sponge (3 different sizes) placed on a cake stand. It was very simple but went down a treat for a desert option.

Fruity Favours

I made my own favours by collecting small glass jars all year! I collected odd bits of fabric you can pick up quite cheaply from material shops/market. I used Cath Kidston sticky labels and filled the jars with old fashioned sweets.

Fun, Fun…Fun

The most important thing to us was that they day ‘fun’ and that there was as little ‘hanging around’ between the main stages of the day. Having sandwiches before the ceremony, games on the lawn, lots of Pimms and local ale, photo room, table quiz during the meal, games room, etc meant that people bonded and weren’t just waiting for the next main stage…and they day flowed seamlessly.

Pulp Fiction

As I am a dance teacher we felt there might be a bit of expectation. So we decided to throw a bit of a curveball and re-enacted John Travolta and Uma Thurman’s dance in Pulp Fiction (to Teenage Wedding by Chuck Berry). We hoped it was also inkeeping with the ‘fun’ atmosphere we were trying to create.

27 thoughts on “A Day Of Fun, Frolics And Literature.”

You get such an amazing vibe from the photos that undoubtedly everyone had the best time, the exact thing I want for my big day next year, loving the chalkboards too. Most importantly they had one of their readings from Firefly and I NEED to know what it was, you can’t beat a bit of unashamed geeky-ness 🙂

I look at rock my wedding everyday, not because I’m engaged or married, but purely because I love weddings!! I was thrilled this morning to see this beautiful wedding and then realise that Kelley was the dance teacher at the college I attended, Aquinas. I have never been the dancing type but Kelley came with us on a trip to India in 2005 so I know her from that.
What a wonderful outdoor celebration! It looks increadibly relaxed and you look like you didn’t have a care in the world!
Congratulations!!
Xx

OMG this is soo beautiful, and I love the chalkboard idea – may have to borrow that one! Biggest love for Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace – I actually wanted to do this for our first dance but the lorry driver has put his (other left) foot down, boo! Congratulations to you both xx

As for the dancing – Dave & I did seriously consider a choreographed funny dance but we wanted to bridal party involved but Best Man was not impressed!!! LOVE that you did the Pulp Fiction dance though. Big respect! 🙂
xxx

@Charlotte – he’s about as good as most English men at dancing (ie, not very!) and doesn’t like being the centre of attention, plus he said he’d be worried about letting me down bless him! I’ve still got that song on the wedding playlist so I’ll be getting my Mia on at some point, with or without my Vincent Vega!x

So lovely to see so much love for Kelley and Will’s gorgeous wedding here 🙂 It was such a pleasure to capture and that first dance was brilliant – I’d highly recommend all your Brides to bes out there to go for it with your first dance….soooo much fun! All the guests loved it 🙂 x

Thank you all for the wonderful comments.Yes we really did have a lovely wedding weekend at Le More Manor. I can say it was the best weekend of my life with no stress thanks to Kelley and Will planning so well.
Family stayed over at Le More on the Friday night and Kelley and Will organised competitive games between the two families and this really set the atmosphere for the weekend.
Kimberley ( bridesmaid ) helped to organise on the day and helped to keep things flowing. I was so proud of both my beatiful daughters.
Will’s best men ( 3 ) were terrific and were invaluable so there were no hiccups. Thanks guys.
I love my new son in law for the way he loves my daughter. Thanks Will

Lesley, lovely comments on a great day. It was nice to know everyone enjoyed the day as this was what Kelley and Will wanted.
I also know Kelley also holds you in high esteem and values you as a dear friend.

I know we’re about 4 weeks late, but thanks to everyone who has left such nice comments!

And we wanted to answer a couple of the questions on here,(if anyone is still reading at this late stage!)….

@charlotte & @claire, the Firefly reading was:
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds- “It ain’t all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flying is? Well I suppose you do, since you already know what I’m about to say.
River Tam- I do. But I like to hear you say it.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds- Love. You can know all the math in the ‘Verse, but take a boat in the air you don’t love, she’ll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the world. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she’s hurtin’ ‘fore she keens. Makes her a home.”
We just had Mal’s second bit.

Also, the main reason we had the blackboards, sandwiches and so many games and activites was for fun and to keep people 1) informed, 2) full, and 3) busy between the ‘main events’ of the day so there would be as few people thinking ‘hurry up’ as possible. That would be our best piece of advice to everyone!

@MissVix – Kelley got rid of some of the pearls, but she still has four strings and one very long single string she used for the suitcase. If you want them she’d be happy to give them to you.

To all the guys – doing a ‘fun’ dance is definitely better than a serious one – you can get away with naff footwork! You’re going to be the centre of attention no matter what, so just embrace it!

And finally @pippa – both Kelley and I both work at Aquinas…so lovely to hear from an ex student!

Hope everyones’ weddings go brilliantly!
x

P.S. if anyone know anyone else who is getting married who fancies a size 8 Stewart Parvin dress…it’s going for a good price! 🙂

I’m getting married next year and, after browisng rock my wedding for some inspiration, I couldn’t believe I came across Kelley’s wedding! She was my dance teacher at college and was AMAZING! (I’m a dance teacher too now!) Looks like a fantastic day with lots of fun things to keep everyone entertained, fantastic.